DOI article:
Naville, Edouard; Hall, H. R.: Egypt Exploration Fund: excavations at Deir El-Bahari
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12055#0020
8 Egypt Exploeation Fund.
discovery of small votive offerings of the XYIIIth Dynasty made last year
has not been repeated, only a few stray votive cows and plaques of blue
faience, bronze, etc., having been found.
Several fine hieratic ostraka, containing lists of servants from different
places, names of labourers, directions to workmen, and so forth, were
found, but not many Coptic ones. One of these latter contains the Lord's
Prayer, another is a note of usury.
Next to the Usertsen statues the chief discovery is that of the beautiful
Xlth Dynasty shrine-reliefs, with their delicate carving and coloiiring.
A fine specimen of this work, which has been kept at Cairo, is illustrated
in pi. iv, fig. 6. The representation of the a^j/-crown, with both feathers
at the back, and the construction of the white crown itself, which seems to
have been made of basket-work painted white and bound with gold bands,
is interesting. A smaller fragment of a similar scene was exhibited in
July in London ; on this the feathers of the winged sun are represented
with extraordinary minuteness of workmanship and delicacy of colour.
We have another representation (in cavo rilievo) of king Mentuhetep and
his queen, in which the faces are perfectly preserved; the queen looks as
if she were an Ethiopian. Another relief (in the high style) is of interest,
since it depicted the great noble Masi walking in the temple; one of the
octagonal columns of the hall or ambulatory surrounding the pyramid-base
is represented on the relief close by his leg. From this representation we
know that the capitals of the columns in the ambulatory were of the simple
square type associated with this form of column. Since we may well next
year find many more fragments of these reliefs, it has been deemed best
to postpone the distribution of them among Museums till next year, when
the fate of all the fragments will be complete, and it may be possible to
fit some of them together for study before they are sent away.
The inscriptions on these shrjnes have told us several new facts.
The throne name of Mentuhetep III, ^0 ^^37 |J, is no longer to be read
Xeb-kheni-Ra, but Iseb-lmpet-Ra. The shrine-inscriptions give the
name of a king Mentuhetep, spelt o (pi. iv, fig. 6); and Mr.
Griffith has suggested to us (and there is no doubt that he is right) that
these names are really one and the same, the second being a variant
spelling of the first, both reading Neb-hapet-Rd, the j of the first being
in reality not the " voice "-sign Icherii, but the "oar "-sign, which has
the same value as the mason's square "nfl, hapet. This suggestion is con-
firmed by instances found in the temple of the name spelt O
discovery of small votive offerings of the XYIIIth Dynasty made last year
has not been repeated, only a few stray votive cows and plaques of blue
faience, bronze, etc., having been found.
Several fine hieratic ostraka, containing lists of servants from different
places, names of labourers, directions to workmen, and so forth, were
found, but not many Coptic ones. One of these latter contains the Lord's
Prayer, another is a note of usury.
Next to the Usertsen statues the chief discovery is that of the beautiful
Xlth Dynasty shrine-reliefs, with their delicate carving and coloiiring.
A fine specimen of this work, which has been kept at Cairo, is illustrated
in pi. iv, fig. 6. The representation of the a^j/-crown, with both feathers
at the back, and the construction of the white crown itself, which seems to
have been made of basket-work painted white and bound with gold bands,
is interesting. A smaller fragment of a similar scene was exhibited in
July in London ; on this the feathers of the winged sun are represented
with extraordinary minuteness of workmanship and delicacy of colour.
We have another representation (in cavo rilievo) of king Mentuhetep and
his queen, in which the faces are perfectly preserved; the queen looks as
if she were an Ethiopian. Another relief (in the high style) is of interest,
since it depicted the great noble Masi walking in the temple; one of the
octagonal columns of the hall or ambulatory surrounding the pyramid-base
is represented on the relief close by his leg. From this representation we
know that the capitals of the columns in the ambulatory were of the simple
square type associated with this form of column. Since we may well next
year find many more fragments of these reliefs, it has been deemed best
to postpone the distribution of them among Museums till next year, when
the fate of all the fragments will be complete, and it may be possible to
fit some of them together for study before they are sent away.
The inscriptions on these shrjnes have told us several new facts.
The throne name of Mentuhetep III, ^0 ^^37 |J, is no longer to be read
Xeb-kheni-Ra, but Iseb-lmpet-Ra. The shrine-inscriptions give the
name of a king Mentuhetep, spelt o (pi. iv, fig. 6); and Mr.
Griffith has suggested to us (and there is no doubt that he is right) that
these names are really one and the same, the second being a variant
spelling of the first, both reading Neb-hapet-Rd, the j of the first being
in reality not the " voice "-sign Icherii, but the "oar "-sign, which has
the same value as the mason's square "nfl, hapet. This suggestion is con-
firmed by instances found in the temple of the name spelt O